Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

3^4 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
tedious recital of the beginning of the war with
Swaran -, but haftcning to the main a6^ion, he
falls in exacS^ly, by a mort happy coincidence of
thought, with the rule of Horace.
Semper ad cvcntum fcftlnat, & in medias res,
Non fccus ac notas, auditorem rapit
Nee gcminobellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo.
De Arte Poet.
He Invokes no mufc, for he acknowledged
none : but his occafional addrelTcs to Malvina,
have a finer effed than the invocation of any
mufe. He fets out with no formal propofition
of his fubjei?tj but the fubjed naturally and
cafily unfolds itfelf j the poem opening in an
animated manner, with the fituation of Cuthul-
lin, and tlie arrival of a fcout who informs him
of Swaran's landing. Mention is prefently made
of Fingal, and of the expected affiftance from
the Ihips of the lonely ifle, in order to give fur-
ther light to the fubjetft. For the poet often
fliows his addrefs in gradually preparing us for
the events he is to introduce ; and in particular
the preparation for the appearance of Fingal,
the previous expectations that are raifed, and the
extreme magnificence fully anfwering thefe ex-
pectations, with which the hero is at lengtk
prefentcd to us, are all worked up with fuch
ikilful